Help me please total beginner...where do i start!!!

[jo4chelsea]

Hi
For my birthday my husbands bought me a tortoise (greek spur thighed) its around 13 months old and my dad is building me a tortoise table as we speak...im due to get my tortoise on friday and after reading and reading for weeks and weeks still feel very confused and wondered if some one can answer the following questions:

What light do i need ? do i need a lamp, a uv light and a heat mat or not all of them...one site recomends sumthing another site doesnt! Do i leave them on all day and night?? and iin its little night time cave thing my dads building on does it need a light in there?

for food can i just go and pick grass out of the garden as well as flowers etc or do i need to buy specialist food?

whats best to put on the ground in the tortoise house and how often should i totally wash it out?

How many years till id need to put it into hibernation...

I have read so many care sheets with different answers idd rather ask someone else who has already got one as a pet...im so xicted but scared at the same time after seeing so many sad stories of tortoises not being cared for well enough.....any advice would help xx Jo xxx

[Xero]

If kept inside you will need a heat source can be anything from a £2 tesco heat bulb upto a £60 arcadia bulb.. it doesnt matter! aslong as your tort gets the heat thats needed. and it will also need a UV light.

As for food its best to give him a veriety of weeds/pellets

For my torts i use sterilised top soil.. can get it from B&Q/Homebase or similar shops and i change it every 3 weeks or so.

Its up to you with hibernation.. you do not HAVE to hibernate them.. you can 'over winter' a tort.

sorry i cant tell you the temps and wether it will need heat over night as i keep horsefields.

[Bindi]

hi, welcome to Shelled Waeeiors

Firstly there are usually no right or wrong answers,tort keepers tend to have differing views on what's best, but here's what I do

Hi
For my birthday my husbands bought me a tortoise (greek spur thighed) its around 13 months old and my dad is building me a tortoise table as we speak...im due to get my tortoise on friday and after reading and reading for weeks and weeks still feel very confused and wondered if some one can answer the following questions:

What light do i need ? do i need a lamp, a uv light and a heat mat or not all of them...one site recomends sumthing another site doesnt! Do i leave them on all day and night?? and iin its little night time cave thing my dads building on does it need a light in there?

I use a combined lamp, called a mercury Vapur Bulb. This provides both heat (to warm torty up) and UV light -
I leave these on for approx 12 - 16 hours a day Torts need a day/night cycle


for food can i just go and pick grass out of the garden as well as flowers etc or do i need to buy specialist food?

Variety is the key with feeding a tort, if you are going to be feeding a weed diet you need to read up on as many different edible weeds as poss. Just a few dandies won't do- as many as possible to help provide torty with all the nutrients he needs
Ther are also various manufactured diets on the market - Pellets are another highly debateable subject

whats best to put on the ground in the tortoise house and how often should i totally wash it out?

I use a mix of topsoil and playsand 70/30


How many years till id need to put it into hibernation...

You can hibernate your toroise from any age, but most people don't do it the first year they have a tort.
Hibernation is a complex topic and the cause for much debate. In my opinion you need to read up on it as much as you can, and dont do it if you don't feel completely confident about it. Some believe that hibernation is an unecessary risk, others feel differently.

[jo4chelsea]

Thanks guys...i have been looking at the arcadia d3 lamp and think im going to go witht his id rather pay out a little more if it means it lasts longer and it has good reviews...now if i get this will i still need a heat mat ? I will be keeping it indoors (most the time especilally now its getting colder).
Again thanks for ur help so far xxx

[Easter Bunny]

You've come to the best place for advice. This forum gave me all my knowledge and I have had had great info from here.
I only take advice from this forum, Hermann tortoise forum, tortoise trust and tortoise garden.

This is what I do for my tortoises.
They have a combined uv/heat lamp (solar glo) which suspends from a holder. It comes on at 7am and goes off at 7pm.
I feed weeds/plants and Pre Alpin fibre. Go to the tortoise table website to see what weeds/plants you can feed. I don't know anything about pellets so someone else will tell you about them.
I bath them once a day.
I change their soil once a month.

[filardimarg2]

Hi Jo & welcome,
I keep hermanns, but i think the care is the same, you will need......
Steralised top soil, heat bulb, i use a 60w spot bulb, on a dimmer thermostat, put them in one end, not in the center, a uv strip tube, a 10 or 12% will be fine. A hide, can be a bought one or like mine, 3 large stones & a piece of roof slate on top, also a hide in the cool end to. A bowl for water, a piece of slate for the food.
They eat weeds most of the time, there is a very good site to tell you what weeds called "The Tortoise Table" just google it. You can always buy seeds from this forum or other places to. You can use pellets, but preferably not every day, maybe once a week.

Anyway, this will give you a good starting point, if you need more help, just askk.

Marg.

[Bindi]

Originally Posted by jo4chelsea

Thanks guys...i have been looking at the arcadia d3 lamp and think im going to go witht his id rather pay out a little more if it means it lasts longer and it has good reviews...now if i get this will i still need a heat mat ? I will be keeping it indoors (most the time especilally now its getting colder).
Again thanks for ur help so far xxx

I use the Arcadia 160 and have been very pleased with it

Heatmats are, I'm afraid another contentious issue! I don't usually use one myself, If I need some extra night time heat I use a ceramic heater with a thermostat. If your tort is going to be kept in a centrally heated room there may not be any need for extra heat night, but it's useful to have something as back up. If you are going to overwinter and not hibernate, you need to trick torty into thinking it's still summer

[EJ]

While the title of this book is Russian Tortoise it is written for Testudo(greek tortoise) in general. It was written for you... the new keeper.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Russian-Tort.../dp/0793828821

Any question you can think of is addressed... well... almost any question.

Originally Posted by jo4chelsea

Hi
For my birthday my husbands bought me a tortoise (greek spur thighed) its around 13 months old and my dad is building me a tortoise table as we speak...im due to get my tortoise on friday and after reading and reading for weeks and weeks still feel very confused and wondered if some one can answer the following questions:

What light do i need ? do i need a lamp, a uv light and a heat mat or not all of them...one site recomends sumthing another site doesnt! Do i leave them on all day and night?? and iin its little night time cave thing my dads building on does it need a light in there?

for food can i just go and pick grass out of the garden as well as flowers etc or do i need to buy specialist food?

whats best to put on the ground in the tortoise house and how often should i totally wash it out?

How many years till id need to put it into hibernation...

I have read so many care sheets with different answers idd rather ask someone else who has already got one as a pet...im so xicted but scared at the same time after seeing so many sad stories of tortoises not being cared for well enough.....any advice would help xx Jo xxx

[Xero]

Also.. something else your torty will need is.. love and attention .. they are very affectionate, and are great little charactors

[TortBabe]

I use the Arcadia UV/Heat bulbs myself, can't recommend it highly enough